Ivan and his sunflower
by Draconeavia777
Summary: Ivan has always been viewed as cruel and heartless, but then one cold winter night someone knocks at his door. Someone he's been in love with for a very long time, but he's been to afraid to tell. Does she share his feelings? Will he be the one to finally bring a smile to her face for the first time in almost 200 years? rated M for later chapters
1. Chapter 1

It was the first time in a while that he had invited someone to come visit him. As he nervously glanced up at the clock Ivan couldn't help but wonder if she would even show up. After all, most of his fellow countries were either afraid of him or hated him. Just then he was brought out of his thoughts by a knock at the door. 'she's here... she actually came!' He thought happily as he went to answer the door.

Taking a deep breath, he opened the door and as he did a gust of strangely warm air blew in. Smiling, he stepped to one side as his guest walked in. As he closed and locked the door the guest lowered the hood of her cloak. Allowing her long silvery-gold hair to be visible, shimmering as it caught the light.

"Hello Ivan" She said as she curtsied. Her southern drawl as warm as a summer breeze. Ivan couldn't help but smile. He had, like many others, always considered Annabel to be very beautiful.

"Da! Hello miss Confederacy. Thank you for coming over." He was happy to see that she did not seem to be afraid of him.

"There is no need for you to be so formal. Please, call me Annabel, and it was no problem. I am glad to have an excuse to get awake from that Yankie brother of mine anyway." She said with a nod, her tone was polite but her eyes held a look that seemed to discourage one from mentioning anything to do with her twin.

"Du are welcome here any time." Ivan smiled brightly, for he too had no great liking for Alfred. He thought it was cruel how even now, Alfred would still remind Annabel that she should have died when the war had ended.

"Why thank you" She gave him one of her rare smiles, one full of southern charm and straight from her heart. It warmed Ivan all the way to his heart.

Suddenly he heard the sound of something... or rather... someone scratching at the door. Ivan felt as if his blood had turned to ice as a cold, menacing voice came from the other side of the door.

"Big broder... I know you're in dere... and i know du have her here, too..."

"What in the name of the Great Spirits?!" Annabel exclaimed, quickly turning to face the door, nearly losing her cloak in the process. Her expression not one of fear but rather one of confusion.

"Big broder... Big broder... I know you're in there... Marry me!"

Ivan backed away from the door as the scratching grew louder. Terrified, he grabs Annabel by the arm and pulls her through the door to another room. "Oh no! It is my sister... Come! We must go!"

"Why do you seem so scared of her?" Annabel was confused by his fear of his younger sister. What reason could there be for him to be so terrified of his own sister?

As they run further into the house, Ivan does his best to explain to her. "It's not her... It's what she wants... And how persistent she is..." He hears the sound of the front door being broken down and begins to run faster.

"oh, I think I understand" Annabel said, increasing her own speed as well. She now understood the danger they were in.

After they had run to the far end of the house and into and empty room that appeared to be use for storage, Ivan released his grip on Annabel's wrist. "I think we are safe for now..." He said as he leaned against a wall, panting as he tried to catch his breath.

"Good, because my shoulder was beginning to get sore from your pulling..."

He looked at her apologetically. "I'm sorry Annabel, I didn't mean to pull so hard..."

She looked at him silently for a second before laughing softly, a cold laugh with out a shred of humor. "I'll be fine... I've had worse injuries..." With a sigh she took a few steps into the middle of the room, the floorboard making a slight cracking noise with each step.

"still..." Ivan said, looking sadly at his hands. That last thing he ever wanted to do was hurt her. Before he could say anything more however, there came the sound of fingernails tapping and clawing at the door.

"Big Brodder..."

The color drained from Ivan's face and with a terrified yelp he grabbed Annabel's arm. But before they had a chance to run, the floorboards gave way under them with a sickening crack. They both gave a surprised yell as they fell through the floor before landing on a rotting dining table.


	2. The room behind the tapestry

Ivan groaned slightly, moan from annoyance at the floor having given way under them than out of pain. He was just thinking of how he would explain this to his boss when he felt a light tap on his right shoulder.

"Um... Ivan, would you be so kind as to release you death grip on my arm? You're cutting off circulation..."

"O-oh! I'm s-so sorry!" He kept repeating as he quickly let go of her arm and helped her climb out of the splintery wreckage.

"It's alright, I forgive you." She replied as she pulled splinters from her hair and dress. Glancing at him, she tilted her head to one side. "Are you alright?" There was the smallest hint of concern in her voice when she asked this. Because Ivan had taken most of the force from the fall.

"Huh? oh, da i'm fine." He replied as he brushed himself off, smiling slightly. No one had ever shown concern for him before. "I wonder what room this is..." He whispered looking around the room curiously.

"Never mind that now!" Annabel hissed, pointing up to the hole they had fallen through.

"Biiiggg Brrrooodddeeerrr... Where aaarrreee duuu..." Hearing the sound of his sister's voice, Ivan began to frantically search the room for another door. Meanwhile, Annabel's attention was drawn to an old tapestry on the far wall. With a surprising amount of strength, she grabbed him by the hand and pulled him over to it. Ivan looked at her in confusion. "what are you doing?! Now is not the time for looking at dat!"

Instead of answering, she simply pulled aside the tapestry to reveal a door. As soon as she opened the door Ivan ran into the room on the other side, pulling her with him. Once they were inside, Annabel closed the door and hung a string of beads and feathers from the handle. "There, this concealment charm should prevent her from seeing this door..."

Hearing this, Ivan smiled and gave a sigh of releaf. "Thank you." He wanted to hug her. But what it mad her angry, he had seen her throw Frances five feet into the ground for simply touching her hand. Though now that he thought about it, she didn't seem to mind when he held her hand earlier.  
Hoping to distract himself, Ivan looked at the room they were now in. "This room feels familiar..."

"Really? How so?" Annabel whipsered, looking around as well.

Ivan jumped slightly, he hadn't realized he said that out loud. "Well, I feel like I have been here before, but a long time age..." He replied as he walked aound the room. It looked as though there had been a fire, the floor was charred black and everything had either been burnt to ash or had scorch marks.

"Judging from the decor, or rather what's left of it. This looks like it had been a room for royalty." Annabel said as she carefully picked up a small silver cup with a family crest engraved into it. Though she could not tell whose crest it was, since it appear that someone had gone to great effort to scratch it away.

The only piece of furniture still intact, though with some minor charing , was the four post bed. A teddy bear was sitting at the foot of the bed, its fur blackened from soot. Tenderly Ivan picked up the teddy bear. "th-this was... A-Anastasia's ..." His voice choked and he tried to hold back tears at the memory of his favorite princess.

**Oh the feels! What am I going to do next chapter? Anyone want to guess? You'll never see it coming I bet.**


	3. feelings revealed

Annabel carefully set down the silver cup and turned to look at him. "The Romanov princess?"

He nodded as he tenderly placed the bear on the chair beside the bed before looking at her in surprise. "Du know of my history?"

Annabel nodded, "Of course I do. Unlike that idiot yankie brother of mine, I actually take a deep interest in the history of other countries. After all, those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it..." As she said that last sentence her voice grew sad and trailed off, her left hand tugging the high collar of her jacket up.

Due to her soft tone Ivan had not heard her last sentence. Smiling brightly her took a step towards her. "Dat is good to know about the history of others. It helps in understanding them. So, du will become one with Russia, da?"

Annabel stood there, a contemplative look on her face. "hmmm..." Truth be told, she had secretly been in love with Ivan for some time now. But due to her brother's deep dislike for him, she had been unable to tell him so. A soft grin appeared on her face. "Well it would piss off the yank..."

Ivan blinked, looking at her confused not knowing what she meant by that. After all, Alfred was got angry if Ivan even mentioned Annabel. "Is dat a da?"

She took a few steps closer before looking up at him. Her expression unreadable as usual, save that mysterious grin she now wore. It was the tone of her voice that gave her answer away as she replied, "What do you think?"

Ivan stared at her, frozen in place by shock. He had grown so used to being rejected that he had not even dared hope she'd say yes. Yet she just had. He could hardly believe that the beautiful girl her had been in love with for so long shared his feelings. "..."

**Short but full of feels. I'm saving the good stuff for the next chapter. Trust me, it's going to get really good. Also i apologize that it took me so long to even put up this short chapter. **


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